The Runaway Troll

by Matt Haig

Published 5 February 2009
There's one thing every troll child dreads more than anything - and that's being sent to the Betterer. The Betterer is the most evil troll in Shadow Forest who loves to punish his fellow trolls for their grubby and stupid habits in lots of horrible ways. When one troll boy escapes the forest to be with his favourite human, Samuel Blink, the Betterer is not very happy. Until he realizes that the most useful thing to have in his Bettering Tower would be a real life human child. So he places his Bettering Branch and Gripgrass Juice in his pockets and sets out on a quest into the human world beyond the forest to kidnap Samuel and the troll friend he's been hiding in his wardrobe.

Shadow Forest

by Matt Haig

Published 3 May 2007
Samuel Blink is the hero of this story, but he doesn't know it yet. Right now, he and his sister Martha are in the back of his parents car. He has no idea a giant log is about to fall from the sky and change his life forever. He doesn't know that he and Martha will be forced to move to Norway and eat their Aunt Eda's smelly brown cheese. He hasn't the slightest clue Martha will disappear into Shadow Forest. A forest full of one-eyed trolls, the sinister huldre-folk, deadly Truth Pixies and a witch who steals shadows. A forest ruled by the evil Changemaker. A forest so dangerous that people who enter never return. No. Samuel Blink doesn't know any of this. So don't tell him. It might ruin the book...